


As We Escape Through the Window

by mistynights



Series: Marvel Femslash Bingo [1]
Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Break Up, Curses, F/F, Introspection, Kinda, Non-Linear Narrative
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:28:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28203144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistynights/pseuds/mistynights
Summary: Angie decides to let Peggy go
Relationships: Peggy Carter/Angie Martinelli
Series: Marvel Femslash Bingo [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2066034
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	As We Escape Through the Window

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the **rescue** square on my Marvel Femslash Bingo card. Funny story, I don't remember finishing this fic. I remember having this idea and writing a bit of it, but when I opened the draft today I realized it was pretty much done. So there's that. The timeline is a bit messy, but I think it fits well with the spirit of the fic so... Anyways, this is an idea I would love to revisit some time, but for now I don't know what else I can add to it so I'm calling it a day ^^ Enjoy!
> 
> Title from Break Out! Break Out! by All Time Low

Angie opens her eyes to the sound of her window sliding open. Though she has her back to it, she doesn’t need to turn to know who it is. She closes her eyes again as the window slides closed and soft steps make their way around the room, quietly opening drawers and moving piles of clothes around. Angie keeps her breathing leveled, her mind empty, tries not to give in to the urge to stand up and scream until her throat goes raw and her voice gives. It wouldn’t be good for her. She’s got an audition soon and there’s no way she’ll get the part if she’s lost her voice. Besides, what will she get from it other than pain and a handful of wasted minutes she won’t be getting back? No, the time for screaming is long past, she knows that. Now, it’s time for silence.

***

The thing about Peggy is that she has this infuriating martyr complex that doesn’t allow her to ever rely on anyone other than herself. She believes she has to save the world, and that’s fine. Angie can’t blame someone who wants to make their planet a better place. What she can’t stand is that Peggy also believes she has to save it on her own.

Never mind that her life is in danger more often than not; never mind that Angie has patched her up so many times that she’s lost count; never mind that there’s a whole group of idiots—enablers, Angie thinks with a wry smile—willing to help her defeat evil and what not. No, never mind all that because if there’s something Peggy is, it’s stubborn and determined. And if she’s decided that she will sacrifice her life in the name of the greater good and keep everyone else at bay, then she will.

And Angie knows this, don’t get her wrong. She’s known since the day she laid eyes on Peggy. Well, maybe not the specifics. But her nana always used to say _some people are trouble_ and _you’ll know when you meet one_ and Angie never understood that—though she wasn’t about to contradict her nana either—until the day she heard Peggy drawl a menacing greeting at some asshole in a bar for the first time. Yes, before you ask, it’s happened more than once.

***

Peggy tries very hard to keep her secret identity that; a secret. She tries so hard that Angie is almost willing to pretend she has no idea why her girlfriend comes home bleeding and sore every other night. She does pretend for some time, in fact, until one of Peggy’s enemies fids out about their relationship somehow and takes Angie to the highest tower in town and ties her up to a pole to lure Peggy there. Not that he needed all the theatrics, seeing how Peggy loves running towards danger, but whatever.

Angie is quite annoyed throughout the whole ordeal, even considers punching Peggy for not being better at keeping her civilian life a secret, but thinks better of it. Knowing Peggy, she’ll just take it as an excuse to brood even more than she already is. As it is, she’s probably driven with guilt enough and cursing her very existence—which Angie just thinks is excessive, even for Peggy—and doesn’t need Angie to add to all her internal turmoil.

When they’re back home, both safe and—mostly—intact, Peggy does the whole dramatic reveal and speech and Angie has to try very hard not to roll her eyes at the whole ordeal. It’s ridiculous, honestly, but it’s also kinda hot, seeing Peggy in her whole broody persona, so she’ll let it slip for now.

What she won’t let slip is Peggy’s so called “solution”; leaving Angie to keep her from getting hurt. That’s the first time they fight about the topic and, unfortunately, they’ll have the same argument over and over for months to come. Not that Angie can know for sure, but she has a hunch that that’ll be the case.

This time, it ends with them in bed, sweaty and angry and tired, and as Angie feels herself fall under the cover of sleep, she thinks, for just a second, that maybe she’ll tolerate arguments if this is the result.

She’ll grow to regret that thought soon enough.

***

Their fighting continues, worse and worse every time. It always goes the same; something happens that mildly inconveniences Angie and Peggy goes mad until they’re back home, then Peggy drones on and on about dangers and about options and about _leaving_ , and then Angie tries to reason with her, tries to make her see that she’s not some helpless damsel in distress. To no avail, she may add.

Sometimes they end the discussion with heated kisses and rushed touches, sometimes they don’t. The more the arguments happen, however, the more it takes them to reconcile. And still neither is willing to see the other’s side, neither is willing to find a compromise.

Until one day the argument ends with Peggy leaving the house with a door slam after Angie shouted that her life was not Peggy’s to decide, and she doesn’t come back for many days.

And then it keeps happening. They fight, Peggy leaves, Peggy returns. It becomes a routine. But Angie knows that, eventually, Peggy will leave for the last time and, as much as she wishes to have some way of keeping her in the house forever, some things just aren’t possible in any reality.

***

Which brings us back here, to Angie with her eyes closed, pretending to sleep while Peggy slithers around the room, picking up her things. Angie feels a pit of rage forming inside of her because she _knows_ , without a shadow of a doubt, that if she lets Peggy leave now, they’ll never see each other again. And isn’t that just the shittiest, most unfair thing? Might Angie remind the universe that it wasn’t her who approached Peggy in the first place?

Oh, no, it definitely wasn’t her, no matter what people think. Because Angie always knew Peggy spelled trouble and that she could only end in tragedy. And Angie knows the world far too well to follow tragedy around. And yet. And yet.

***

She doesn’t have an excuse as to why she ever accepted Peggy’s offer of a drink that night, after seeing the end of a hypothetical relationship with her so clearly. At least not an excuse she’s willing to share with people.

Her family would know, though, with just one look. They would understand without Angie having to say anything at all about this whole mess. It’s such a pity she can’t bear the thought of them knowing, can’t allow herself to open up.

***

"Our love lives will all end in pain.” Angie’s heard the words so many times that she could repeat them in her sleep. Actually, she’s not sure she _hasn’t_ said them in her sleep, because Peggy can’t understand her night mumbles and before Peggy, none of Angie’s partners ever got to share a bed with her.

The point is, pain and love are a big thing in Angie’s family. Like, a _really_ big thing. Can’t have one without the other; can’t have a happy life without some bumps in the road, all that jazz. But it’s more than that for them.

It comes a long way. No one ever gets a happy ending, at least not when it comes to love. The few times it looks like things might go well, those are the times that are the worse, the times where deaths are slow and houses fall and children suffer too. Angie would like to say it’s all an invention, a fairy tale. But she can still see her mother’s body in the backyard and, well, let’s just say certain life events will make you believe anything.

So she knows, when she meets Peggy, that there’s no way things will end well for them. She knows the only way to save herself the heartache is to walk away before things get real, before feelings have had the chance to bloom. But then Peggy is giving her a one over, smiling oh so sweetly, her mouth offering her a drink while her eyes offer her the world. And Angie is _weak._

***

Angie isn’t stupid, though, and she knows that any and all attempt against the natural order of the world will only make the inevitable fallout worse for everyone involved. At least right now Peggy’s still alive, and will continue to be so for some time still—hopefully, if her world savior complex doesn’t get her killed soon, but at least then it won’t have to do with Angie, so she’ll take it.

And that’s why she closes her eyes and pretends she doesn’t notice Peggy leave one last kiss atop her head before slipping out into the night. Forever, if Angie has any say in the matter. She doesn’t, but she's sure the universe has no interest in them meeting again. Angie supposes that's close enough.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr [here](https://misty--nights.tumblr.com/)


End file.
